Tooth & Claw
by alternatives
Summary: The hero ? of The Dragon finds himself sent on an international mission by his boss -- Vlad Draco


TOOTH AND CLAW

FF1006862.doc

TOOTH AND CLAW

"China?" I was still learning to speak Romanian which, let me tell you, is not easy because it's a cross between Latin and Russian. Now Draco wants me to learn Chinese?

"Is that a problem, Ben?"

I have to tell him the truth. My boss gets really mad when he finds out you're dishonest. Maybe I can soft-pedal it. "How much time do I have to learn Chinese?"

"You will have an interpreter."

I exhaled. "What's my job?"

"Oversee the factory while they test this." Draco clicked the remote and one of his seven hi-def screens lit up with a picture of a box. It had a couple of buttons on it and some writing in English.

Draco is a whiz at gadgets that do amazing things. That's his whole business. I met him when he came to University of Maryland to scope out a crab-shell chemical detector, and here I am working for him in Târgovişte, Wallachia. "OK. What does it do?"

"Remember the melamine poisonings and the lead scares?" Draco folded his hands behind his head, leaning back in his buttery soft leather seat. Trust me, I tried it out once. But only once. I'm sure I made it onto the surveillance cameras and I thought I'd better quit while I was ahead. Learned that lesson from a dead friend.

"Yeah. Does it use the crab shells?"

"Another material."

"Good, because Carnie tells me crab shells are a thing of the past. Can I ask why you're not going?"

"You can ask." You do not challenge Draco. You can tell that just by looking at him. Sure, he has a widow's peak, but he also has a hawk nose and his eyes can look right through you. When you double-cross him, he will take you to the mat and leave you there in little bitty pieces. I personally watched him tank a company that tried to take him over.

"How long will I be there?"

"As long as it takes."

"When do I start?"

Draco pressed a button on his desk. "Send Ms. Zhu in."

I looked up. I mean it. I looked up. She had to be a cousin of Yao Ming. She nodded to Draco and shook my hand. "Glad to meet you," she said. Her English was almost perfect. "Shall we get to work?"

Oreithiya was waiting for us in the reception area. She is one of Draco's three assistants: blonde Klara, the business specialist with the dark eyes; Mircea with her midnight looks who handles PR; and Oreithiya the techie with her blue-black hair and eyes that sometimes look dark grey and sometimes olive green. But since he hired me you know that Draco isn't sexist. Although sometimes the women hint that I'm his pet puppy. They're joking.

"The lab is this way," Oreithiya said to Ms. Zhu, and led us down the hall. When a project is really important, Draco puts it in the lab on his floor. That's what he did when he bought the crab-shell-detector project from my old boss Pat. He must have started working on this one at the same time; I don't know how he knew that crab shells were only a temporary expedient but Draco has the best information in business and he always knows things like that. That's how he tanked that company.

On the counter was the three dimensional version of what I just saw on TV. The English said Tectec. I reached out to turn it over. Oreithiya slapped my hand. "Ms. Zhu?" she said.

Ms. Zhu stepped forward and pulled an iPhone out of her pocket. She called something up and compared what she saw on the display to what was on the counter. Then she set the iPhone down and began to push buttons on the Tectec, checking against her iPhone display the whole time. Finally she pointed it at Oreithiya and looked at its tiny screen. "Frangipani?" she asked.

"Are you satisfied?"

"Quite. How many can I take with me?"

"Give me your iPhone and come along." Oreithiya took us to a computer at one end of the lab, set the iPhone down and sent something to it over the WiFi. "You now have the data on an upgraded version, of which we will send two with you. They will be in Ben's control at all times. His instructions are to notify Draco if they go missing. In that case, and if they are not returned with him, we will lodge a charge of industrial espionage with the World Court."

"Mm." Ms. Zhu turned to me. "Are you ready to go?"

"No. I haven't packed, and I don't have a passport or a visa."

Oreithiya handed me a package. "Don't lose it. The doctor is in here."

"What doctor?"

She looked at me with the smoky grey eyes. "You need your shots."

She turned and I followed her. Just like a puppy. "What about my clothes?"

"They've been shipped. Don't take your iPhone or laptop. Ms. Zhu will make sure you have computer access if you need it. Here's your cell phone and three spare calling cards to a total of 1,000 kuai renminbi. I'll be waiting outside." When I came back out she had more instructions. "Be careful what you say on the phone. A lot of Chinese know English. You can carry this onto the plane." She handed me a backpack. By this time we were at the front door of the building. "Have a nice time."

I finally caught my breath. "The only thing she didn't tell me was how to find a toilet." By that time I really didn't care if Ms. Zhu thought I was crude.

She took a small pad out of her purse. "Learn these signs," she said. She drew a couple of little things on one page, tore it out and handed it to me. "Make sure you don't go in the door that has this symbol on it." It had an X through it. "Fill your jacket pocket with toilet paper before you leave the hotel, and make sure you have plenty of small bills." She handed me a wallet and showed me the bills inside. "The ones in this pocket are the smallest, and these are the largest. Tell me when you run short and I'll make sure you get more."

"So tell me why I'm taking this trip. I can't speak the language and I'm not allowed to touch the Tectec."

"You're the insurance that the Tectec hasn't been tampered with and won't be copied."

"He could have sent Oreithiya. If she had trouble in a toilet, you could go in and help."

"Great, he sent along somebody who can't even use a toilet."

"No, that's not what I meant," I said.

"Maybe you'd better shut up now." Do women make you guys feel stupid?

I tried to go to sleep but we were at the Bucharest airport before I got halfway there. I followed in Ms. Zhu's wake to Draco's company terminal. Yeah, I know I'm editing but if you've taken a flight recently you know what you have to go through. I looked at my ticket. "OK, we've got 15 hours to go. Aren't you going to even try to teach me any Chinese?"

Ms. Zhu sighed. "Can you sing?"

"Er, does karaoke count?"

"OK, say this." Ten minutes later she said, "Maybe I underestimated you. That means hello."

We slept a little but by the time we arrived I had some phrases under my belt like "goodbye," "thank you," and "do you speak English." I'm not even going to try to tell you what they sound like; there are a bunch of web sites with free Chinese lessons on them.

The Beijing airport is gorgeous and that's all I'm going to say about that because you can see pictures on the Web. Then we took a train to Guangzhou where it's warm and beautiful and crowded; it's got more people than New York City. We had a two-bedroom garden apartment in the White Swan Hotel where there are twelve restaurants. You have to go there. Ask for Yi in the massage parlor.

Next day Ms. Zhu took me to the factory and I used my cell camera to send back dozens of pictures. Then she demonstrated the Tectec for the heads of the factory and they looked really excited. They kept asking her questions and she kept shaking her head and saying "It can't be," the Chinese of which she made me learn on the plane for some reason. "What was that about?" I asked her.

"That's not important for you to know," she answered. "Just remember that I was following Mr. Draco's instructions."

Back at the hotel, I said, "Can I go to a bar?"

Ms. Zhu looked at me. "Are you old enough to drink?"

Ouch. "What's the drinking age here?"

"Never mind. How much does it take to get you shitfaced?"

I opened my mouth and then I remembered who I work for. "I'll call room service."

"Mm."

I went to the front desk and got the concierge to go buy a souvenir for Draco, then ordered a bottle of hundred year old single malt Scotch and drank about a finger of it from the Waterford crystal in the kitchen. The concierge brought me the tchotchke and I sent it Fed Ex. I was whipped from the factory tour; between that and the Scotch I passed out with Hellboy II running in the DVD player.

The next thing I know somebody is pounding on my door. I make it over there without tripping on the carpet and say who is it.

"Who the hell do you think it is? Open up."

"To what do I owe this honor?"

"Oh, god, you really are drunk." She looked past me to the bottle on my nightstand. "One drink?... Cripes. OK, we have to get out of here."

"Why?"

"Don't talk." Ms. Zhu pushed inside and then literally pushed me out the door. Somebody knocked on the outer door. "Damn." She ran over to the window and looked out. And down as I knew very well. Horrible ideas started running through my head. "OK, get over here. I'll drop you and then jump myself. Benjamin! Now!" People were knocking harder and she gulped as she looked at the door. So I walked. "Sit on the railing and put your legs over the edge," she said. "Now put your feet on the edge of the balcony. Now turn around and take my hands. Uh. Now grab the bottom rail with your other hand. OK, a little lower. Now just drop."

It was still a long way down from the second floor but I managed not to give myself a concussion on the edge of the balcony or break my legs, and Ms. Zhu managed not to land on top of me. She caught her breath, then said, "Come on!"

We ran about five paces and almost slammed into them. About five of them. Two stepped behind us and tied our arms together. Two more picked us up and carried us. When we got to the panel truck they threw us onto the floor, locked the back, and we took off. I don't know how long it took; they tied my hands and I couldn't see my watch, but after a while we get off smooth asphalt onto bumpy country roads so it was some trip. Like I said, Guangzhou is a huge city. I'm going what, are they crazy? Do they know what Draco will do to them?

The truck stops and they take both of us out and stick us in a dungeon. Search us. One guy goes to a corner where there's a bucket and he kicks it and looks at us. They take the tape off our mouths, untie us and leave. "OK, I guess I know where the toilet is," I say, and laugh a little. "Are they crazy?" Ms. Zhu glares at me. "You heard what Oreithiya said. And Draco doesn't particularly care who gets hurt if he thinks he has to protect himself. Believe me, I know."

"You know nothing."

"Tell me."

"Shut up."

"Why do you keep treating me like your baby brother?"

"I don't have a baby brother."

"I should have guessed that; you'd never have survived this long."

"Where are the Tectecs?"

"Where they'll never find them."

She laughed bitterly. "They will. Believe me."

"Who are those guys? They were wearing unforms." Another glare. "You don't know." Ms. Zhu looked down and clenched her jaw. "You suspect but you don't want to admit it."

"What good is this doing? Shut up."

I didn't know what else to do so I shut up. Eventually I dozed off. That ended when somebody threw down a box. Breakfast. It was pretty good but it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to call my boss and tell him I couldn't help it, I was kidnapped. "He'll figure it out," I muttered, "and then he'll be pissed and then some Chinese are going to die."

"And how do you expect him to get here," Ms. Zhu hissed. "They'll stop him at the airport."

"If they see him."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know nothing." That felt good. Ms. Zhu didn't need to know that my boss can turn into a venomous snake if it suits his purposes – and I mean snake literally.

I don't know how long we were there. They took my watch and we had no windows. I tried counting meals but realized I didn't know how often they were feeding us. It felt like often enough. They were kind enough to change the bucket every couple of feedings. Otherwise being caged with the one woman in the world who can keep her mouth shut sucked. I tried to sleep but you can only sleep so much. Ms. Zhu started pacing our cell. When that got annoying I said, "Don't you know Tai Chi or something?"

She snorted.

"Go ahead. Say it. I'm a stupid Westerner."

Ms. Zhu's mouth went lopsided. Then she said, "I'm a stupid Westerner."

That made me bust out laughing and we got hysterical. Then I said, "What is your other name anyway?"

"Bao Shi."

"Does that mean anything?"

"Jewel."

"That's pretty."

"Don't sound so surprised…. What does Benjamin Orner mean?"

"I don't know about Orner but Benjamin means son of the right hand."

"Mm."

"How long do you think it's been?"

"They took my watch."

"Mine too. That's why I asked."

Bao Shi started pacing again. Suddenly we heard this commotion in the hall, her head snapped around as she listened, and then the cell door banged open. A uniformed man walked in. He had brass on his collar, unlike Gargantua and his mate. "Talk," he said, and held a cell phone to my mouth.

"Ben?"

"Hi, boss. How are you?"

"Thanks for the souvenir. How are you?"

"I'm here. Can you see on the viewer?"

"It's kind of dark, Ben."

"Yeah, it's an underground kind of place."

"I hope you're not there alone. You don't know the language and you could get into trouble."

"Ms. Zhu is here."

"Can I talk to her?"

I looked at her. The officer moved the cell to Bao Shi.

"Hello, Mr. Draco… Ben is behaving with restraint. I have no complaints to make about him…. The demonstration was very impressive, as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures Ben sent back… No, I don't have a signed agreement yet but I'm sure everything will be worked out in a few days. Ben seems quite optimistic as well… I'm not sure when I'll get back to Beijing but I will be certain to let you know… Very well… Goodbye." She said something to the officer and he let me talk again.

"What is it, boss?"

"I'll be flying in to Beijing in a couple of days. Meet me there, all right?"

"Sure, I'll meet you in Beijing. Wouldn't miss it."

"Do you think the deal is all that Ms. Zhu cracks it up to be?"

"Probably not unless you're there to ink it. I don't think they'll play hardball with you like they would with me."

"Oh. It was supposed to be standard terms and conditions."

"It was? I guess somebody got visions of grandeur. See you in a few days."

The officer closed the phone. He said something to Bao Shi and she answered with her usual "Mm," with a shrug thrown in for good measure. He wasn't really happy about that.

When he left I said to her, "Somebody yanked his chain."

"Quiet!"

I whispered. "He's sending us back to Beijing to avoid a showdown."

Bao Shi frowned and said nothing.

This time we got a car, not a truck, and a flight on a private airplane with some kind of logo on it. Of course I don't know whose logo, I only know how to read two words in Chinese, remember. When we got back to Beijing we were escorted to rooms Draco had reserved for us, and a totally excellent dinner. Then we all went to the ministry of trade or industry or something and a paper was signed. Then Draco said, "Why don't you children run along and do some sightseeing?"

I almost asked what he was going to do in the meantime, but then I noticed Draco's bracelet. He wears this golden bracelet in the shape of a dragon with ruby eyes. The eyes shone like fire. I've seen them do that before; it means Draco is working some kind of wizardry.

I stuck to the sidewalk at first. I thought, booya, boss is on the case and somebody is going to go down hard; I'd love to see what he does and how he does it. He grew smaller as he walked away from us, and I tensed the muscles in one leg, intending to walk after him. Then reality set in. If you did follow him, how do you know his bracelet won't detect your body odor and tell him you're there?

You're not your boss, I told myself. You're not the reincarnation of Vlad Dracula. You can't turn into a snake. If somebody sees you, you are in trouble or dead. He knows that. He's trying to protect you. Do what the nice man said and let him commit whatever mayhem is appropriate.

Bao Shi dragged me around to a bunch of tourist places and then we got to go to the airport and go home. Bao Shi came with us, and she kept up a stony silence the whole time.

"My office," Draco said. Once we were seated, he told me, "I don't know why you sent the Tectecs back so soon."

I said, "They didn't get what they wanted at the factory. They kept trying to talk Bao Shi into something and she kept saying no and they kept looking angrier. I wasn't sure what they might pull but I decided keeping the Tectecs with me wasn't safe."

Ms. Zhu looked at me with a certain respect. "How did you do that?"

"Got the concierge to buy me a used copy of _Art of War_. Cut the pages out, shredded them, stuck the boxes in, and FedEx'd them to Wallachia."

"Are you sure the concierge didn't buy an antique?"

"I don't think it was that old."

"You don't think. You might have destroyed a national treasure, and it doesn't bother you at all."

"They didn't get the Tectecs, did they? What would you have done? If I had hidden them anywhere in the hotel, how do you know they wouldn't have torn it down to find them?"

"Or paid the housekeepers to find them," Bao Shi agreed after a sigh. She looked at Draco. "You caved," she said in a bitter voice.

"I beg your pardon."

"Long San Zhao. You signed the agreement so they would tell him to let us go."

"You would prefer to go back?" When Draco talks quietly, you walk with care. Ms. Zhu didn't know that.

"They will copy the Tectec," she accused. "They will alter it to make it useless so they can continue what they have been doing, what the Tectec is supposed to catch them at."

Draco smiled. He doesn't have a nice smile; his teeth are too pointy. "My dear. How do you think I forced them to give me access to you?"

"Wait a minute," I said, "who's Long San Zhao?"

"That officer," Bao Shi explained. "How?" she asked Draco.

He smiled and I thought, the dragon strikes again! "There are always people who think you don't know what you know, or what they know. They will do many things in the hope that they can keep their secrets. They will pay anything to keep a stranger from possessing or transmitting those secrets. Including releasing hostages and giving guarantees."

She stared at him a couple of minutes. "I don't believe in your so-called guarantees. Wait one month. If anything happens to me, pull the trigger."

"Why would anything happen to you?"

"The Mandate of Heaven."

Draco's peaky eyebrows went up.

"What's the Mandate of Heaven," I asked.

"In imperial China, rebels used to justify their revolts by claiming that the Mandate of Heaven had passed from the current dynasty. It was a consistent pattern," Bao Shi explained. "When a dynasty became entrenched, it became ineffectual. Aggressive men in the provinces began to acquire power and run their provinces to suit themselves. If they became powerful enough, they could overturn the dynasty and become emperor in their own right. Then they claimed that the Mandate of Heaven guided their actions.

"You developed the Tectec for many reasons and one of your applications is to catch China adulterating products. You would not have to do that if the heads of the factories and the heads of the departments running them were real Communists. They aren't. They are opportunists – almost capitalists. If they are caught, they become criminals. White collar crimes can be punished by death in China." She paused. Neither of us said anything so she went on. "They will do anything to avoid getting caught."

"I still don't get it," I said. "Where does the Mandate of Heaven come in?"

"Long San Zhao," she said. "Do the research. If you cannot find anybody with that name in Chinese government or industry or military, then he is in the pay of a provincial wannabe boss. The factory pay him to try and find the Tectecs, kidnapping us and, if necessary torturing us."

It shook me a little that her English broke down. She was scared. "Oh, come on, you're imagining things," I said.

"You are a naïve and stupid Westerner," she answered. "We would have been just two people who went where they shouldn't have and came to an end caused by their own stupidity. Even if somebody found our bodies, nobody would have been able to tell how we met our end."

"But I'd have told them where the things were," I said.

"So what?" she said bitterly. "They didn't have to believe you." She drew a shaky breath. "If he had found the Tectecs for them, Long San Zhao would have gone on to take over the province, or possibly worked himself into the industrial chain of command. Then up the chain, and into the legislature – and possibly into the chairmanship, eventually. He was not happy about failing in his task," she said. "If anything happens to me, it will be his revenge. Don't release the specifications to them for at least a month and then – play for time."

I'm not in management and nobody tells anybody on my floor anything – unless you talk to lawyers' secretaries and the computer guys who set up new accounts. You wouldn't believe what a guy who works in computers will tell you, after a story about the gorgeous woman you went to China with. Nobody had anything to say about new work with China.

Three weeks later, Draco came into the lab where I worked and put a hand on my shoulder. "Come with me."

He sat me down in his office and for a while, said nothing.

"Zhu Bao Shi?" I asked, my voice squeaking.

Draco nodded. "The Spanish plane."

I put my hand over my eyes. Like I said, Draco's intelligence is excellent. I thought, they reneged on their promise of free speech; they made a singer lip-sync; the stadiums are half empty because they did the security all wrong; there was a bombing the day before the opening ceremonies; two Bank of China employees were convicted of embezzling and money laundering. And Long San Zhao took his revenge. The Mandate of Heaven is passing. "Are you going to pull the trigger?" I asked. "She could be a pill but I want to know that somebody is going to pay for the death of Zhu Bao Shi."

"I have done it already. Check Google when you get back to your desk."

"Can I get a little help? I have other things to do besides work Google, you know."

He smiled. I shivered. "Bank of China," said my boss. "I sent the necessary records to the prosecutor in the Zahavi case. The snake beats the dragon."

"Dragon? You're the dragon." I gestured toward his bracelet.

"Long San Zhou. Three clawed dragon," Draco explained. "He was aiming to become a five clawed dragon. You should read this," and he handed me a book.

" 'Strategies of the Warring States,' " I read.

"The Warring States period was fertile in lessons about how to beat multiple foes. If Long San Zhao survives, it will be because he has memorized that book and he knows how to conquer the remains of Chinese Communism."

"The way Vladimir Putin conquered the remains of Russian Communism." I scratched my head remembering an argument I once had with my friend Carnie. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Russian Communism end about twelve years after the Moscow Olympics?"

"I'm impressed, Ben," said Vlad Draco.

I spent about a half month's salary on another bottle of old Scotch and spent the weekend emptying it. I dedicated the first shot to Zhu Bao Shi.

9


End file.
